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Friday, May 19, 2017

With Boating Season Here, New Reminders Issued About Island Protection

OCEAN CITY — With another summer season quickly approaching, conservation advocates this week are reminding recreational boaters the sandy islands in the coastal bays that serve as temporary homes to endangered species of beach-nesting birds remain off limits to human interaction.

Two years ago, the federal Army Corps of Engineers dredged the navigation channels in and around the coastal bays behind Ocean City and used the roughly 400,000 cubic yards of sand to restore some long-forgotten islands in the bays that hadn’t appeared on charts since the 1930s, including a four-acre spit now known as Tern Island.

That summer, Tern Island quickly became a hub for recreational boating as weekend enthusiasts waded ashore with beach chairs, umbrellas and coolers. At one point, recreational boaters unofficially claimed the island as their own, wading ashore with an American flag, a flag pole and bags of concrete in a spontaneous act of patriotism.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So because developers were allowed to build homes and condos on the bayside of OC and take away the majority of nesting areas, now the average person can't go on the islands in the bay. Kudos. That strip of sand housing all of the hot mess known as OC was never intended for people either.